Kaze jolted awake as the smell of smoke entered his lungs.
Sitting up immediately, he began coughing harshly as he felt backed up and choking on the burnt smell in the air. The high-pitch ringing in his ears only worsened the situation he was in right now due to the previous explosion that happened right before he managed to release his technique onto Bryle.
He widened his eyes when everything suddenly came rushing back to him at once. From the fight to the sudden thunderclap, Kaze only remembered a flash of white and he momentarily blacked out after being blasted away. Right now, with his sight and hearing starting to return, he was able to make out the scene in front of him.
The ringing sound was replaced with wood burning and the hiss of a monster, his sight showing him the scene of the giant centipede monster from before in front of his eyes. He was able to get a good look of it now that all the trees had been blown away and it was exposed under the sunlight that was starting to get blocked from the amount of smoke that was produced from burning wood. It was likely the monster emerging from the ground that caused the explosion to happen, for it released some sort of magic skill it had that dealt this wide area of effect damage to the surroundings. What that once was a forest around him was nothing but collapsed trees and burnt land.
"Kaze!!" Shoko jumped out into the clearing and rushed over to pull him away.
"S-Shoko? Wha…" Kaze mumbled, still unable to respond properly. "Why are you here…?"
"I came rushing over as soon as I heard the explosion. Now more people will be attracted and we have to leave," Shoko whimpered, trying her best to not attract the monster's attention as she hid them both behind a huge fallen log. "Can you move? You are hurt quite badly since you must have been closest to the explosion…"
"We… have to warn them…" Kaze panted, grunting as Shoko applied emergency first aid on the areas around his body since he no longer had anymore clothes on but only tattered pants. "To get out of here…"
"Everyone can't escape. If they could, you would have been forcefully teleported away too," Shoko hastened her explanation and began casting healing magic. "Hold on, I will try my best to lighten your injuries so we can escape…"
"No, where's Yuuji and Lunaria?" Kaze forced himself to sit up even if his muscles ached and his body trembled against the pain. "We can't go anywhere with the barrier blocking us…"
"Kaze, let go of your sword. I can't heal you that way," Shoko gulped. "I don't know about Yuuji, but Lunaria…"
"Lunaria… what?" Kaze widened his eyes when he noticed the difficult look on Shoko's face. "What is she doing?"
"… She's facing the monster on her own for now," Shoko gritted her teeth as she slowly muttered the words. "Yuuji is probably gathering whoever possible to help aid with the attack, but even I can't say whether or not Lunaria is able to fight."
"W-What do you mean? Isn't she able to transform into a dragon or use high-level magic?" Kaze made a nervous laugh. "Why are you making it sound like she is struggling?"
"Well… we only just noticed but we can't replenish mana or use mana from the surroundings gradually," Shoko silently spoke. "The barrier has an effect that gradually drains mana from around us. We didn't notice it earlier because of how big it was, but now that it is the smallest possible since we are in the last circle… Lunaria nor the others can't cast high-level magic as they want as a result. As for her dragon form… it would be too dangerous to use that now, when there are many other students around us. If she was alone, then maybe…"
"… Shit!!" Kaze slammed his hand onto the dirt floor, gripping his sword even tighter. "Shoko, we're going back."
"No, you're not going back," Shoko firmly said so. "You can't even do anything in your condition. I would say that some of your bones are either fractured or broken-"
"Then focus on healing the most injured places. I can move that way," Kaze glared at her. "We have to help."
"You're helping by not going. We can't afford to have more people injured," Shoko pushed him back down to the floor gently, causing him to hack in pain. "You see? All I did was gently push and you are already in so much pain."
"… If only… I was able to defend…." Kaze muttered. "Then I could be…"
"You did enough. The moment you and Mitsui tried to inform all of us, we heard the explosion and saw the monster, so we knew," Shoko's tone became gentler as she tried to persuade him. "Kaze, just rest for now. Leave the rest to us who can fight to hold on until the barrier is settled."
"… No, I'm going after all," Kaze began pushing himself off the floor again. "With or without your help."
"You must be crazy. What do you think you can do if you go there huh? You are too hurt to even swing your sword once," Shoko fought back, trying to reason with him. "Please, just stop."
Ignoring her pleas, he forced himself to his feet once again, using his sword as a cane to stabilize himself. Indeed, his entire body felt pain all over the moment he was back up, proving that he was not in a place to move. Parts of his mind fought against each other, one part wanting him to quit while the other wanted him to move.
Even as Shoko continued to hold him back, he was starting to drown out her voice and the only thing filled in his head was his heart thumping. It had amplified so much due to how worked up he was, how much he was exerting his body to the limit. While he might have gone through intense training many times over that he felt like he was going to die, never had he pushed himself while being this injured.
But, even so…
"Shoko… please," Kaze looked at her in desperation. "I can't…"
"… Ahh, mou! Don't blame me for what happens next," Shoko stomped her feet repeatedly before sighing. "Sit back down! I will try to heal you and we can go."
- - - - -
A few minutes before Kaze woke up, Lunaria zoomed through the air with her dragon wings. She no longer needed to abide the rules when she sensed a strange atmosphere in the air. Her suspicions were confirmed when the explosion was heard nearby, followed by the strange screeches that sounded like something was dying.
Flying along to investigate, she soon met the devastating scene of the forest destroyed by the area of effect magic that caused the explosion area. In the middle of the area crawled a hideous huge centipede monster, its size so overwhelmingly large its length was comparable to that of a full-grown dragon. Its entire body was cased in body armour that looked tough to break through even from afar, its legs in a similar state. The power it demonstrated rivalled its body appearance too, for every stomp of each single leg it had was enough to vibrate the ground slightly. With how many dozens of legs it had, even Lunaria couldn't help but shudder at the terrifying sight before her.
She was about to move away when she saw the centipede moving towards a human figure lying on the ground. Even though she wasn't exactly sure if it was a human or not, her instincts kicked in before she knew it and her wings carried her in an astonishing speed towards the centipede. With her sword withdrawn before she knew it, she imbued magic instinctively and readied her attack magic.
The centipede was about to stab Bryle, lying motionless in front of it, when it sensed an approaching enemy. Turning around to see Lunaria soaring right at it with a deadly look on her face, it recognised her as a formidable opponent and began charging right at her instead. Lunaria expected this to happen the moment she directed her bloodlust at it and tightened her grip on her sword further. Any foe being affected by a dragon's menacing aura should have been enough to cower in fear and escape, but not this one due to the abnormality in strength and size it possessed.
"Haaa!!!" Lunaria cried out and swung her sword downwards onto its crown.
Upon impact, Lunaria's magic took effect and a giant blast followed. The sound of metal striking each other resounded and both of them flew backwards from the impact. Lunaria gritted her teeth at this, not expecting its armour to be able to withstand a straight on magic attack from her. Any normal monster would have had its head split in half like an exploded watermelon by now, but not even a dent could be seen on its armour.
The centipede got a little rattled up by the impact as the force was not fully absorbed by its armour and transmitted all the way to its brain. Shaking its head, it let out another loud hiss and swung its tail at Lunaria. She avoided it by soaring to the air and grabbing Bryle's body away from the zone. In a quick flash, she was at the edge of the battle zone and plopped his body aside so he wouldn't get caught up in the action.
"Tch… that single hit was enough to make my hand go numb?" Lunaria nervously smiled and glanced at her hand, which was slightly shaking even as she held her sword. "What a monster."
"Lunaria!" From behind, Rena and Sera came after her.
It seemed like the two had managed to catch sight of her fighting and came forth to help her. Having been briefed on the subject earlier already, it was their turn to let Lunaria know what they can.
"Rena, Sera, are you okay?" Lunaria asked worriedly, looking behind them to see Chris and Irene approaching. "Do you know what that thing is?"
"No, but Kaze found it earlier when he was in the forest," Rena shook her head. "Now, the person he was with who also saw it has left to inform Yuuji of this."
"Lunaria, you know we can't let that thing get away like that," Sera gulped. "We can't even teleport away."
"Not if I can break the barrier," Lunaria stated, glancing upwards. "… Hm? No, something's different…"
Using her exceptional talent for sensing magic, Lunaria focused for an instant and began depicting the image in her mind of the difference that she was sensing. To test the theory, she began channelling mana through her body back to the environment repeatedly to analyse the flow of mana. Blue circles that seemed to be directed by the flow of air circled both of her arms as Lunaria grasped her hands together. It made her glow a little blue, her hair floating in response to her channelling mana. Both her friends watched the centipede just in case it charged at them while Chris and Irene wondered what Lunaria was doing.
"… I see, I don't think breaking the barrier is reliable," Lunaria muttered, feeling a little more worried now. "This barrier is capable of draining the mana within the area it surrounds."
"W-What? How is that possible?" Irene twitched a little at Lunaria's statement. "So, you mean we can't cast spells?"
"Not that we can't, but from the looks of it I can't cast any high-level magic," Lunaria shook her head. "If I did, I would need to release it a few times for the barrier to break. In the first place, I don't know how secure the barrier is, so it is hard to test it."
"Is our only option to defeat the centipede monster then?" Chris asked. "I don't even know if we can get close to it…"
"… Where's Kaze?" Lunaria suddenly remembered and stood up. "I was looking for him and got distracted by that thing."
"He broke away from us and went to find either one of us," Sera shook her head. "We will have to wait for Shoko to come if we want to verify his location."
At the same time, students began streaming into the opening out of curiosity for what managed to do this much destruction to the surroundings. Needless to say, the centipede noticed the steady stream of humans entering to its domain and turned to face them.
"Lunaria, the students," Rena pointed out, causing all of them to turn around.
Screams filled the air as the centipede began charging towards them. Students who regretted stepping out into the open were now scrambling to run back into the forest, but not before the centipede began trampling over them. More cries of pain and destruction followed, none of them knowing what to do in the face of such an apocalypse. As students, they had little to no experience with dealing with monsters of this calibre so this was the natural reaction.
"N-No! Stay back!" One student cried out as the centipede lowered its head towards him.
In a desperate act, he threw his sword enchanted with magic at it, only for the sword to bounce of its tough shell. The centipede narrowed its eyes before bellowing, ready to crush another one of its victims. Closing his eyes, his life flashed before him just as an ear-splitting cry rang through the air once more.
A huge arrow made of light had pierced right through one of the centipedes many bodies. From afar, Rena could be seen holding her bow in one hand and loading another arrow into it. She charged up her magic once more, the bow and arrow increasing in size from the gathering of magic and expanding till it was twice as large as she was. That was the point where Rena let go of the string, sending the arrow flying through the air. The charged arrow was several times more powerful than a normal magic arrow, capable of decimating even trees in its path. Now that the area was clear without an obstruction, its destructive power remained the same throughout until it shot right through the centipede.
The arrow burst a hole through its exoskeleton now, the centipede howling in pain from being shot twice and breaking through to its vulnerable flesh.
"Hm, that must have hurt, doesn't it?" Rena made a daring smile at this and lowered her bow slightly. "Come over here, you ugly thing."
Rena's provoking worked and the centipede was now seen stomping right at her, leaving the rest of the students. Lunaria took this chance to head over and cast large area healing magic, an Advanced Level spell normally capable of restoring severe wounds on the students who were injured from the centipede. Right now, she had to focus on healing first before she joined the battle as she was the only one capable of using such advanced magic. Lunaria needed to rely on her friends to stall for time.
"Come!!" Chris charged at centipede, running past Rena to act as the vanguard.
Sera took the chance to shoot a few arrows at the centipede, her arrows attaching right to its shell. The arrows then exploded in an attempt to cause it to be distracted since they were trap arrows, allowing Chris to make use of its lost momentum to swing down his giant sword.
"Sword skill: Skull Crusher!!" Chris bellowed.
His entire body glowed red as he swung his sword and whacked it right over the head of the centipede. Even though it barely dealt any damage, the centipede definitely felt the aftershock of taking on such a powerful technique head on. Crying out loud in pain, its body jerked violently as the shocked travelled through it. Chris didn't stop there, switching up the attacks to something a lot faster instead of focusing on power. He swung his giant sword skilfully at it, exchanging blows with one of its many hindlegs while the centipede fought back.
"Lunaria wasn't joking when she said this thing is tough," Chris laughed out loud while parrying. "No one has been able to take my Skull Crusher head-on without avoiding it and still manage to fight!!"
"Chris! Get back!"
At his girlfriend's words, he quickly leapt away just in time for the centipede to spit another one of its deadly toxins. Swapping position with Chris, Irene jumped forward and threw up a spell that would deflect any attacks dealt to the attacker. It worked just fine for the toxin, with it reversing its attack direction to the centipede. The centipede swerved its entire body away to avoid the counter, swinging its tail once more at them. This time, the antennas at the tail burst open and became mouths that multiplied massively. It was like snake heads that came right at them.
"Che!" Irene gritted her teeth and immediately retreated, knowing that the centipede figured she couldn't take head on attacks like so.
Chris stepped in once more and got ready to take the blow, but an unexpected attack came from the sidelines. A wave of high-pressured water shot out repeatedly in curved shapes towards the snake heads, severing some of them.
"Need some help?" Albert asked, drawing his sword.
"Ou!! I don't know who you are, but I will take it!" Chris smirked and turned to the centipede once more. "It's hard being the only frontliner."
"You're not alone," Yuuji stepped in as well. "We have brought those of us who had decent fighting and supporting ability together. They are preparing for an attack from behind, so we have to take its attention."
"I'm ashamed by how stunned I was when this thing came charging at me. I need to return it the favour," Albert grunted, his sword flaring up with water magic once more as he got ready to attack. "As a member of the noble Dristolte family, I will not allow myself to be shamed!!"
The centipede bellowed at them once more as it got ready to attack again. It seemed like it had recovered during the short interval when they interfered. Round 2 was about to start with more people now.
"T-Thank you Lunaria-sama…"
"Ouch…"
"Lunaria-sama…"
Some of the students who were able to move or not so heavily injured began helping Lunaria with the injured. With her powerful healing magic, Lunaria managed to avoid the crisis of someone potentially dying even if they were still bleeding. By that point, the treatment by the others was fine so she cancelled out her healing magic.
"Don't waste mana! Only use high-level spells if absolutely necessary!" Lunaria shouted to get their attention before she flew off. "Make use of the potions instead!!"
Lunaria's mind crossed the thought of having to transform into her dragon form, but she held off that suggestion. While it was certainly a viable way to defeat it without much trouble, Lunaria knew that it was going to cause a lot of damage and possibly even harm those around her. Plus, fighting a centipede archetype was not a good for her since it could easily capture her with its long body and quick movements. Even if she was flying, it was hard to say whether she could defeat it since all her attacks needed mana.
"… So, we have to do this the hard way huh?" Lunaria smiled wryly, noticing that Albert had joined the group to fight.
Other than that, people had started to gather around the monster under Yuuji's command. It seemed that everyone was dead set on taking down the monster even if they didn't know what was going on, causing Lunaria to feel a little worried. It wasn't like she didn't want to trust their abilities, but she knew that many were not capable of facing off against the monster like some could. Still, they were willing to fight and this was enough proof of their bravery.
"Lunaria, what do we do?" Sera asked once she swooped in from the sky and landed beside her. "Even with all of us…"
"Yeah, there's no guarantee that we can win," Lunaria nodded. "Worst case, I have to try and break the barrier with what little mana the surroundings have. Yuuji, I will need you to be the commander."
"Certainly," Yuuji firmly nodded and raised his sword. "Everyone!! Vanguards to the front, frontline tankers lead the way, mages and archers gather behind!!"
At his words, the students began to organize themselves quickly and took positions properly. As expected of someone who had been training in strategic warfare and leadership, Yuuji was able to take command easily since he already had the trust of the students. While Lunaria could have done it herself too, she didn't want to bear that responsibility when she had other things on her mind already.
Even though they had the numbers, that didn't mean they necessarily had the power to take down the centipede which only began to look even more furious. The students mostly felt fear, but only stood together due to the strong leadership quickly displayed by Yuuji. Sera and the others joined the group, leaving Lunaria to fly above them to examine the battlefield. Right now, she was acting as a strategist.
"Archers, ready your arrows! We will taunt the monster forward so tankers can block them. That is when the mages will attack. We vanguards remaining will attack in the meantime while the mages charge up their magic. If that thing attacks, just move away, don't bother intercepting it!" Yuuji relayed the commands in a loud voice to ensure that everyone could hear him. "We will make it out alive together! Fire!!"
Rena and Sera led the volley of arrows with power that was way over what a normal student could do. Being magic archers who had trained, they released two powerful shots right at the centipede along with the other magic arrows. With the arrows all flying, the tankers rushed up front to form a small defensive wall that would hopefully prevent the centipede from mowing them down.
""""Iron Wall!!""""
The front tankers all shouted at the same time and activated their skill. It resounded with each other, forming a giant defensive wall that allowed their teammates' attacks to pass through while defending against whatever that was in front. This was a technique that all tankers should be aware of, especially those whose classes were defensive type.
With a loud roar, one of the fiercest group battles that the first years would ever face began.